Shredder's Daughter!
by Piccolo's Love Slave
Summary: ~ A strange cat-girl shows up to stir up trouble for our heroes on the half-shell. What link, exactly, does she hold to the past for both Master Splinter and The Shredder?! ~
1. A Brief Author's Note Before The Actual ...

The following is a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fan-fiction. I felt the need for an authoer's note before I let you start reading.  
  
I can't believe I am actually writing another...yes, I did say 'another', back in the early ninties or so I went through a HUGE N.T. phase, I loved everything about them and had even memorized the dialog from the first two- parter pilot cartoon episode.  
  
I had a teacher in school who got a kick outta calling other teachers into the classroom in the middle of class, saying "Watch this!" and then pointing at me; "Go, Ami!" I'd take a deep breath and recite the entire episode word for word including narration and they just thought that was the greatest...haha! "Dance, Monkey-girl, dance!" *sigh* lol.  
  
I also recall drawing up pictures of all the members of that cartoon, (yes, I KNOW it started as a sorta parody comic book that.), and making photocopies and stapling them together to form coloring books for the kids I babysat.  
  
(Note to any babysitters: A nifty way to keep them busy; give them fan-art to color!  
  
well, not originals of course! Photocopy some uncolored ones or some that you didn't care how they turned out and give them photocopies to the kiddies with a box of crayolas. I swear you'll have at least a half hour's worth of peace.)  
  
As always, such love grew into some very odd fan-fiction, all of which I've lost...not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing...heh)  
  
But, anyway, this is the story of Amiko, Shredder's daughter.  
  
Oh, she's also part cat. Though I haven't decided wiether this was because her mother was neko or due to a mutation.  
  
Anyway, read it if you want. Don't if you don't want. I really love comments! Hehe!  
  
~Ami aka Piccolo's Love Slave aka NamekSlaveGirl on www.blurty.com. 


	2. Amiko

Amiko Pulled her winter coat tighter about her narrow shoulders and walked onward through Central Park. Shadows hugged her on either side and she thought she heard a rustle behind her. It was cold and she was more that a little afraid. The dark hair peeking from beneath the green stocking cap she wore tugged down tight over her ears, was blue- black and straight. It reached her hips and swayed in the breeze as she walked.  
  
Suddenly, there was a noise behind her, louder than the rustling she'd heard earlier and a man sprang out at her from behind a cluster of bushes, startling her. She raised her arms to her face in an instinctive protective gesture but before the man could attack, shadows seemed to spring out nowhere and quickly laid waste to her would-be assailant. Three of the somewhat bulky shadows had already slipped back into the night, but one lingered.  
  
Amiko gasped to find herself face to face with one of them! The very creatures she'd been sent out to find! What luck! She was stunned into silence as they stood there, seemingly transfixed by each other. Donatello held his staff-like weapon loosely, as one who knows how to use his chosen weapon would, easily, as though he knew he were skilled with it and were comfortable with his weight and heft.  
  
"Donatello!" A voice, in a whispered shout, from the shadows, "Come on!"  
  
"Yeah, Dude," Another came, "What are ya waiting for, a date?"  
  
At that snickers could be heard and Amiko relaxed a bit, she started, "T- thank you.My name's Amiko.I."  
  
"It's no problem," Donatello said, he was wondering if her eyes always looked yellow green like a cat's, "You shouldn't be walking alone in Cental Park this late, though."  
  
She shrugged, "I could have taken him if you hadn't interfered."  
  
"Listen," He said, "This is hightly irregular.but since it's too dark for you to walk home alone, why don't you come with us.?"  
  
"No way!" Another Turtle, this one wearing a blue bandana as opposed to Donatello's purple one, jumped out in front of them, he was followed by a much more relaxed Michaelango who was twirling his weapon nonchalantly and whistling.  
  
Raphael followed Michaelangelo and leaning against a tree observing the conversation with a tad bit of morbid interest. "Master Splinter would kill us! Not to mention it's very irresponsible!"  
  
"Forget it, guys!" Amiko said, becoming impatient, she started to walk towards the street her apartment was on but Donatello stepped in her way, blocking her path, "Move it, Green, I mean it."  
  
"It's too dangerous for you to." Before he could finish his sentence, she punched him in the jaw and when he raised his bo in defense, she unexpectedly used it as leverage to flip him backwards over her head. He landed with a thud on the ground behind her and she flipped backwards to land gracefully next to him, kicking his weapon out his hands before planting her booted foot square under his chin.  
  
"I could have handled that guy myself, you know." She grinned, her dark hair hiding her face like a silken curtain.  
  
"Hey!" Michaelangelo yelled, shoving her off of Donatello, who sat up and rubbed his throat, coughing experimentally, "What do you think your doing?!"  
  
"Yeah, nice way of thanking us, Miss-Kick-Ass-For-No-Apparent-Reason!" Raphael sneered, "C'mon, guys, she wants to be left alone, let's leave her alone."  
  
"Yeah!" Amiko sneered back at Raphael, arms folded across her chest, "Go!"  
  
"No!" Donatello nearly shouted, "I won't leave."  
  
"Oh, Geez!" Leonardo sighed deeply, "This is stupid. The longer we take to argue about this, the greater the risk we run of being seen."  
  
"Hate to break it too ya, big guy," Amiko snorted, looking amused, "You've been seen."  
  
"Only by you," Leonardo said and before she could move, swiftly lifted her up and threw her over his shoulder, "Come on! Let's go home!"  
  
"Hey!" Amiko, very upset over her very undignified manner of transport, pounded her tiny fists upon Leo's hard shelled back and screamed, "This isn't fair! Let me go-ooo-oooo!"  
  
"Be quiet, Amiko!" Leo said back to her, "I don't want to gag you, but."  
  
"Ha!" She ha-ed, "I'd like to see you try!"  
  
They were sloshing through the underground sewer system by now and Amiko wondered how on earth they could stand the horrid stench. She felt like she was about to vomit. For once she was glad she didn't have to wade through the disgusting stuff. Whatever it was.  
  
But, she still didn't like how they'd completely disregarded her wishes and just snatched her like a child from the park. Her dark eyes narrowed in barely concealed ire, "If you don't let me go, I'll start to scream again!" Even though she hated the though of the sewer floor and whatever may be scurrying about around on it, it was preferable to being hauled about like a sack of laundry!  
  
"If you don't be still," Donatello said, walking behind her and Leonardo, "You might bring us more bad luck."  
  
"Hmph!" She said, just under her breath, "Bad luck! When my father finds out about this, you'll wish all you had were bad luck!"  
  
Just then, as if her words spoke some secret cue, the sewers were filled with the android foot soldiers of their arch-enemy; The Shredder! Leo dropped his burden off in the corner and spun his katanas, hitting two of the foot soldiers in the head at the same time and smacking three more, wires and sparks flew everywhere as they fell into the muddy waters below, their parts swept away with the rest of the offal.  
  
Amiko watched from her place in a corner against a wall, a small smile drifted across her face. So, these were the famed Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, she thought as she played with a lock of her dark hair. She'd lost her stocking cap somewhere and didn't really care to retrieve it.  
  
Her cat ears, poking up through her dark hair nearly matched the color of her hair, complete with blue-black highlights when they hit the light just right. They'd not realized it, but she hid her silken black tail beneath her blouse, wrapped about her waist. She'd been called a freak more than once in her life. Even by her own father.  
  
But, I won't think about him, She said to herself firmly, as she watched the fight taking place between those she'd been sent to infiltrate and her father's robotic henchmen. She'd never seen the use in those crude, too slow counterfeit fighters.  
  
But she knew that this time, he'd sent them as a distraction means basically, as she got up and slipped, unseen about the corner, her sensitive feline nose picking up scents too subtle for even a mutated turtle's nose to pick up.  
  
Yet, Donatello noted her absence, "Where is she going?" He asked his comrades, as they got rid of the last of the seemingly endless succession of foot soldiers, "I thought you told her to stay put."  
  
"She's trying to find the lair!" Raphael yelled, "Are you guys stupid or something! It was a trick! Can't you see that!?"  
  
"Amiko wouldn't."  
  
"Don, just because she's cute doesn't mean she wouldn't betray us! Let's go!" Leonardo said as they raced, as fast as they could, back to the lair.  
  
"Turtles!" Splinter, a mutated human and rat, brown furred and old, wrapped normally in a crimson robe, and also the turtles' teacher, cried out as they ran into their underground home. The four fighters gasped in collective shock. The girl, Amiko, had Splinter in a restraint hold. They couldn't understand it, but he couldn't seem to break free of her! "Run! Get out of here!"  
  
"No!" Raphael cried, his sai all ready out and ready to attack, "Master!"  
  
"Why are you doing this, Amiko?" Leonardo asked, "Let him go!"  
  
"Yeah, like, why ya trippin', babe?" Michaelangelo asked, cocking his head to one side, "I thought we were cool."  
  
"Amiko?" Donatello asked, "You don't have to do this."  
  
"All of you! Shut up!" Amiko screeched, cat-like, at them, with her mouth open as it was they got a good view of her sharp fanglike teeth, they also hadn't failed to notice her pricked and pointed feline ears atop her head, "Your babbling is giving me a migraine! Go sit down! On the floor there! There is something I need from you."  
  
"Anything you wish, Amiko-san." Splinter said calmly, "This can be resolved without further violence."  
  
Raphael looked like he still wanted to change forward and yank the damn neko away from their sensei and his weapons trembled in his hands.but at a touch on his shoulder by level-headed Leo and Raphael lowered his weapons to his sides, dropping them entirely, shoulders sagging. What could he do? She had Splinter! There was no way he was going to risk him being harmed or killed.!  
  
"I see you're all beginning to see reason, now." Amiko said, her voice a mixture between a purr and a growl, the turtles all sat down, weaponless, on the floor as commanded, "I really don't enjoy this sort of thing.you have to believe me on that, really."  
  
"Just get on with it!" Raphael snarled, his eyes like dagger behind his crimson mask, "Ama!" (A/N: I believe ama means 'bitch' in Japanese.but I could be wrong!)  
  
Amiko narrowed her catish eyes at the insult and Michaelangelo glared at his fellow warrior; "Dude!" He whispered, "Not such a good idea to piss her off further, ya know? Hostage sensei and all?" 


	3. Shredder's Hostage

He was in his private study, the one reserved for his meditations and just basically getting away from Krang constant whining about not having a body of his own, baka piece of pink bubblegum! Saki sat in his chair and sipped at his tea, his metal mask and helmet off and placed carefully upon the nearby table.  
  
He could hear those imbeciles Rocksteady and Beebop quarrelling among themselves in the other room. The quarrel having escalated into a brawl, Saki winched and rubbed the spot between his brows as he felt the place crashing once more as one of them just got through tossing the other into a wall.again.  
  
He sighed deeply and fought the urge to go to his door and scream at them to stop their foolishness. But, what is one to do, He reflected, when one lives among animals?  
  
Speaking of animals.He opened his eyes and his thoughts strayed to his daughter, who should be, even now, gaining him all he needed to know to get rid of those annoying turtles and have his ultimate revenge upon that rat Yoshi.Splinter.  
  
He had done all he could to insure that worthless neko girl of his did her part. His hard, dark eyes strayed towards a small, box-like cell which sat in the corner of his study. Huddled into a far shadowy crook of the compartment curled into herself sat a woman.  
  
Dark hair dirty and tangled hid her neko ears from sight and her dark blue gi was tattered from fighting. She breathed shallowly, making him think that perhaps her rib was broken, but otherwise did not move.  
  
She only watched him with her un-nerving yellow-green eyes. Saki rarely met her gaze, finding it filled with hatred and loathing for the being, once, long along, she had found something redeeming within to care about.even love.  
  
But, that had been long ago and now, like most people who could not understand the strength and determination it took to gain the supreme power, she was his enemy.  
  
A small part of his otherwise hardened heart moved a little bit in regret at that. But it was much like a tiny songbird trying to be heard over the cacophony of black crows, too diminutive of a sensation to be acknowledged.  
  
"Glare all you want, Kioko," Saki said, donning his helmet and gloves, becoming, once more, The Shredder, "You're my prisoner until your daughter returns with what I want."  
  
"She is your daughter, as well!" Kioko cried, still glaring, she gasped as her sudden outburst had jolted her fractures.  
  
"That cannot be helped." Shredder said, his voice echoing behind his mask, making his appear even more humanless than before. All she could see of his now were his ebony eyes.  
  
"She won't help you!" Kioko whispered, "She'll die first!"  
  
"Then so shall you." Shredder said, at the door of his study, he turned back to her before touching the panel upon the side of the door, "After you have watched your daughter die."  
  
He did not wait to see how she took his words. Tears behind her eyes, the woman sunk to her knees and embraced herself. Her poor daughter! This was all her fault.had she been able to defeat him.but she had been weak.  
  
He had tricked her, used what love she still felt for him against her, twisting it into something foul and unbidden. She wanted to gag at the recollection, if she hadn't all ready emptied her stomach several times all ready, she might have.  
  
"Amiko." She cried into her hands, "Forgive my foolishness." 


	4. Recollections

She continued to glare at them through her strange-hued eyes. Her arms were getting tired from holding the rat upright and close to her, but she dared not release him else his students would be on her all the quicker. She knew she must succeed...  
  
"Child," Splinter, his voice rough like old wood, yet soothing, in her ear, very familiar and yet...strange, "Child, let me go so that we may speak like civil beings..."  
  
"We won't harm you, Amiko-san..." Leonardo spoke, as always, playing the part of leader down to a Tee. If she could, she would have applauded his effort, "Just let Master Splinter go..."  
  
Splinter, once known as Yoshi to those old enough to recall his fully human form, touched Amiko's soft olive-toned hand beneath his own clawed and furred one. Energy seemed to seep from her at his touch, draining her. She sank to her knees behind him. He turned and placed a hand upon her brow, the other keeping her from toppling over. "Shh..." He said, as tears caught in her slanted eyes, beautiful eyes, eyes belonging to one he had known long before...  
  
Out the corner of his eye he saw one of his students rise and prepare to attack. He held out a hand behind him to stay the action. "Raphael-san," He said, "Do not attack this child! She has been through much."  
  
"B-but, Master...she..."  
  
"Do not question me!" Master Splinter said, turning his full attention towards the girl who now knelt before him, "Why have you come seeking me, now, Daughter Of My Enemy?"  
  
Amiko gasped and turned her face away. He knows! She thought, But how could he know...?  
  
"I know many things, Amiko-san," Splinter smiled kindly at her, and she realized that his face, voice and manner weren't unfamiliar to her at all! She had the vaguest inkling in the back of her mind that she somehow knew him, yet did not recall from where. "Including you and your mother's names. How is Kioko?"  
  
At the sound of her mother's name, Amiko shrank down lower towards the floor. Her feline ears drew back and her tail, now visible, tucked between her legs in shame, "Father said...said..." She stumbled over her words, shame at not having finished her mission lending doubt and insecurity to her words, "Father said that I mustn't fail or Mother...Mother...would....would....die...!"  
  
Master Splinter closed his eyes briefly, shaking his head. All the pain in his old heart seemed to be focused into that simple gesture. Without a word he took the girl into his arms and held her as if she were of his own blood, rocking her gently as she wept. The others, ill at ease around a crying female, shifted in their seats. Only Donatello inched forward to place one hand upon the girl's shoulder and look at her with sad, kind dark eyes.  
  
In her mind, Amiko drifted. Back and back and back until she could see just over the tops of tables if she peered on her tip-toes. The silk robes she wore were lose about her small body and her hair had been shorn close to her scalp after an accident with her Mother's sewing sheers. She didn't mind her short hair. It made it easier to get dressed in the morning without her hair being pulled and twisted into styles that her mother thought looked nice. She was running through the garden, her little lithe feet kicking up dust all around that she pretended was smoke due to her speed.  
  
She often played such games. Games where she was some kind of super-being out to save the world from wrong-doers. Her tail, dark and cute, was too small to hide about her waist she her mother allowed her to keep it tucked under her robes, but the fur tickled her skin. She wore a hat most of the time to shield her odd black-blue cat ears from strangers.  
  
Yet, running in the garden, she had no fear of strangers. She stripped off her robe and let her tail loose to feel the breeze swish the fur about it, her hat flew off her head and her ears twitched, enjoying the fresh air. She giggled and a butterfly touched her upturned button nose. She chased after it, laughing, landing on all fours in the dirt beside the flowerbed, her tail swishing back and forth playfully.  
  
"Amiko-chan!" Her mother's voice rang out sweetly, calling her from the house, "Come here and meet our guest!"  
  
Still giggling, Amiko ran towards her mother's voice, not caring about her nakedness, as was the way of very young children, and slipped behind Kioko's slender waist, peeking out at the stranger who had come to call. Kioko looked down at her child and shook her head, pushing her out in front of herself. She dusted the top of her head and barely missed swatting the child's ears.  
  
"This disgraceful little urchin," Kioko said, but her eyes twinkled and her voice was soft, almost playful, "Is my daughter, Amiko. Amiko, this is a good friend of mine, Yoshi-san."  
  
The handsome dark haired man bowed deeply, showing his respect in greeting towards the shy little girl and her mother. As he rose, Amiko saw that his eyes held something different than all the other guests who had ever come to grace her mother's family's garden and she bowed clumsily in return, her eyes shining back at his.  
  
Slowly, Amiko came back to herself, still being held within the arms of this rat-person. Though as she pulled away and stared into his dark, shining eyes, she no longer knew him as a stranger to herself. "Yoshi- san...!" She exclaimed, "I've missed you! Mother's missed you..."  
  
"We must all begin to think," Master Splinter interrupted her, "Of a way to rescue Amiko's mother, Kioko and bring her to safety..."  
  
Amiko nodded, growing silent once more. Long overdue reunions would have to wait, she knew, until everyone was there to be embraced...safe and sound. 


	5. Love Forsaken?

"God! I can't believe the day I've had!" The slender woman shoved herself out of her rain jacket and let the thing fall in a heap by her front door, her purse and hat followed. She nearly tripped over her cat as he wound his way around her legs and purred loudly, "Your so lucky to be a cat, Fred." She said as she reached down to scratch him behind his ear. She'd found him digging through a trashcan in the alley behind her flat and had fed him once, after that, he'd followed her home. She still hadn't decided if she'd adopted him or if he adopted her.  
  
Just as she was kicking her dirty clothes and a half a dozen empty pizza boxes out of her way as she moved towards her small kitchen for something to eat before she crashed out for the night, the phone on her end table in her living room rang, piercing and loud in the quiet apartment. She jumped and nearly tripped over the orange tabby, who was still trying to keep her attention focused solely on him.  
  
"I know you haven't eaten yet, Fred!" She cried, racing and tripping over things, towards the phone, "I promise to open a can of..." She grabbed the phone on the third ring, "...hello? Hello?"  
  
"April?"  
  
"Leonardo?" She gasped, shoving aside a basket of half-folded clothes and plopping down on her sofa, putting her feet up on the coffee table, "What's up?"  
  
"Are you okay, April?" Her long-time mutant turtle friend asked, concern in his voice, "Is there trouble? You sound...odd..."  
  
"No, I'm fine, Leo," She sighed, wincing as she took of one of her shoes, her feet hurt like crazy, "Just had a rough day on the job...always chasing that proverbial great story, ya know? I'm just a little bushed, is all..."  
  
"Oh," He said and she could hear hushed voices on the other end, "Hey, April, can you do me...I mean us...a huge favor?"  
  
She paused in the rubbing of her feet to perk up, "I don't know, Leo, the last time you asked me to do you guys a 'huge favor' I ended up having to take a month off of work to reconstruct my living room..."  
  
"It won't be that bad, April," Leonardo said, a tone of pleading in his voice, April knew then that it was serious, "We just need to ask you if you'd let a...friend...stay with you for a few days..."  
  
April sighed, imagining all sorts of mutated giant animal-people eating her out of house and home, using her shower and clogging up the drains with fur, howling at the moon, getting into fights with her cat...She rubbed the spot between her eyes right above the bridge of her nose as he went on to explain that it would really help them out and that she wouldn't be any trouble at all...  
  
"Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!" She cried, "Back up! What was that about Shredder? Chrome Dome's involved in this?" Her reporter mind clicked on suddenly and she began to smile, "Tell me more...maybe I can get a story out of this..."  
  
"It's too dangerous over the phone, April," Leonardo said, "I'm bringing her over. Stay put. I'll fill you in when I get there."  
  
April sighed and hung up the phone. No matter what she did, as long as she kept people like the turtles as friends, she could always count on being in the thick of it. She stood up, stretched much like her cat, and followed him into her kitchen where she opened a small can of cat food for him and made a sandwich for herself as well as put on a pot of coffee. She had a feeling she'd be needing it.  
  
She took a quick shower as the coffee brewed and was just wrapping a pretty satin pearl pink robe, whose hem only reached her mid-thigh, about herself and tying the string about her waist when the doorbell sounded. Towel- drying her short auburn hair, she walked the short distance to the door and spent the allotted five minutes and a half undoing and unlatching all the locks and deadbolts that gave her some small sense of security here in the Big Apple.  
  
Leonardo she recognized. He stood there in all his mutant ninja turtle glory, dark blue mask hiding his upper face from view, katanas strapped to his back ready for instant action, upon her doorstep, a light rain had begun to fall and the top of his head was sleeked with liquid. She wondered, briefly, why he hadn't bothered to wear his normal fedora and trench coat disguise.  
  
The woman, however, she did not recognize. She stood a little shorter than April herself, with long dark hair that fell in cascading waves across her narrow shoulders and down her back. The shadows hid most of her face and when she turned her eyes upon her, April was taken aback for a moment by their eerie cat-like glow.  
  
"April, This is Amiko," Leonardo said as she moved aside she they could enter. She closed and locked the door behind them. Turning about, she caught sight of the woman's tail as it poked through a hole cut into the back of her black leggings. She wore a tight-fitting blouse with sleeves that ran down into fingerless gloves nearly covering her hands and small black shoes that looked good for running or walking long distances in. Amiko faced April and bowed deeply, "Amiko, this is April." Leonardo finished the introductions as April bowed as well in greeting.  
  
Amiko flicked her feline-like silky black ears as the sound of Fred hissing from the doorway to the kitchen. The fur on Amiko's tail rose a bit as she turned towards the cat. After staring at each other for a good five seconds or so, Fred made a mewing sound and ran out of the room towards April's bedroom, slipping quietly under the bed.  
  
"Um, Sorry about that," April laughed nervously, "Fred's a little...jealous of new...people..."  
  
"No, Don't feel you must apologize, April-san," Amiko shook her head, sitting down after them upon the chair facing the sofa where April and Leonardo had chosen to sit, "Leonardo told me that you would allow me to stay here for a few days, at least long enough to form a plan to rescue my mother, whatever you can do, I am so grateful to you."  
  
April saw by the look in her eyes that she was speaking from the heart. She could see tears welling up behind her eyes and had to fight off the urge to pull the younger woman into her arms and hold her tight. She merely nodded, placing her elbows on her knees and her chin on her fists, gazing across at them both, waiting to be filled in.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Kioko sat with her legs crossed over each other in the center of her small cage. She had a bowl of rice and shrimp sitting in front of her, a pair of dirty chopsticks stuck into the food at awkward angles. She was staring down at the food through blur-hazed eyes, the pain of her broken body was dull in comparison to the agony inside her heart.  
  
She had absolutely no appetite, but she knew she had to force herself to eat and stay alive...if not for herself, than for her daughter who might still be able to come and save her. Amiko may still be able to find a way, she told herself, over and over, She's always been a resourceful girl...  
  
She moved the make-shift bandages she'd formed from ripping pieces from her battle gi gingerly aside to check a particularly angry wound about her forearm. Three deep red gashes, the skin flaming all around, marked her otherwise nearly flawless slightly tanned skin. "Hsst..." She hissed in pain as she clumsily cleaned her wound with her tongue, cat-like, healing juices from her saliva working to speed up the healing process.  
  
"Hey, wanna use that tongue on something else, babe?" She looked up and blinked her eyes at the darkness. Being part feline she could see much better in the dark than a mere human could, still she could not see in pitch blackness, like most full-blooded cats she needed a little bit of illumination. Still, she needn't any light at all to recognize the voice before her.  
  
"Leave me alone, Beebop..." She growled, her voice horse from many nights in tears and from demanding her freedom, "Go back to your lover, Rocksteady, at least he shares your intellect."  
  
"If youse wasn't stuck in that cage, bitch," He growled, "I'da pound youse!"  
  
"Get in line," She coughed. Just then something flashed behind him and Beebop was thrown bodily out of the room. The door clicked shut behind him. Kioko hid a sigh of releaf as her 'rescuer' walked over to the cage. She looked up into Shredder's pitch dark eyes and saw her own ragged reflection staring back at her from the polished metal of his face mask. She held herself from inching away.  
  
"Our little girl is taking too long," He said, "She should have been back with the maps long before now." He scrapped one shining bright death-sharp claw across the bars, making a high-pitched scratching sound, "I won't wait forever, you know..."  
  
Without thinking, she reached out and grasped his hand, wrapping her small one tightly about his wrist. His eyes showed nothing as they continued to stare at her, unfeeling but for the spark of rage that always lingered behind his features now. She looked past that, trying to see the man she once knew. The man she once loved and who'd once held her with such tenderness.  
  
"What's happened to you, Saki...?" She asked, her voice barely above a whisper, "You used to love me..."  
  
He jerked his hand away, his claws scratching her arm yet she showed no sign of pain, only kept her eyes focused on his. "Now I hate you." He spat out, and she blinked in agony as he spun from her sight and stormed out of the room. But, she had seen that spark with he would have rather kept hidden, the reason for his abrupt departure from her sight. She smiled through cracked lips, blood dripping down her arm upon the bar of her cage she still gripped tightly, to soil the all ready dirty floor at her feet.  
  
Out in the hallway she could hear his voice as he yelled at his minions; "I don't want either of you going near her! Do you understand me?"  
  
"Y-yes, Masta Shredda!"  
  
"Good! Now get out of my sight!"  
  
She listened as Beebop and Rocksteady scrambled over each other on their way from thier master's gaze. Afterwards, she heard only silence.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Amiko said nothing as she sat on the sofa, April had shoved aside her basket of laundry and apologized for the state her apartment was in. Leonardo had filled her in as to the reason they thought Amiko needed to stay with her. "It will be safer, for everyone," Leonardo had said, before he'd departed, "If Amiko hides out here for a few days..."  
  
April nodded. "Oh, the poor thing," She'd muttered, not realizing that, with her feline ears, Amiko could pick up every word she uttered, "Of course I'll do whatever I can to help save her mother from that monster...!"  
  
Amiko's eyes flashed in sudden anger as she swiveled her head to face the doorway April and Leonardo stood near. "No matter what changes have occured," She spoke in a low, dangerous voice, "He is still my father!"  
  
April gave Leonardo a look as if to say; "Are you sure we can trust her?"  
  
Leonardo sighed and shook his head, not knowing the answer himself.  
  
"I'll be back," He said, closing the door behind him. I need to speak with Master Splinter, quickly! He thought as he slipped into the shadows, seeking out a manhole cover to lift and lower himself down into the more familiar sewer system of New York city.  
  
Amiko closed her eyes, gripping her hands into fists. She hated feeling so helpless. She had been given a mission. Find the maps she knew were hidden somewhere within the turtles' lair and take them back to her father, insuring her mother's release and her own safety. Simple enough, right? If only she could keep thinking of them as just a means to an end, but after realizing she actually knew one of them, remembered one of them from her past she knew that could not think of them that way at all anymore.  
  
Her mission was seriously jeopardized.  
  
April came out of the kitchen with a mug of hot coffee steaming from her grip. Leaning towards her, Amiko accepted the proffered dark liquid. She lifted the cup to her lips and winced as the bitter stuff scorched her tongue. Though she preferred tea to coffee, she would not be rude to her host by turning up her nose. April held her own mug and curled up on the chair, tucking her long, muscular legs beneath her as she faced her quiet guest.  
  
"I'm very sorry to hear about your mother, Amiko..." She began, as always clumsy expression concern, she fingered the arm of her chair, "I'm sure the turtles are doing what they can to rescue her, you don't have to be afraid, you know, if anyone can save her, it'll be them!"  
  
Amiko looked up at the obvious pride in April's voice, wondering just how this strange American reporter had come to know the turtles and Yoshi-san. She would be sure to ask how such a friendship had come about if she ever had a chance. Right now, though, she could only think of her botched mission and of how terrible the punishment would be once news carried back to her father. She sipped at the coffee once more, the bitterness and heat serving to steer her thoughts from her troubles for a few brief moments.  
  
~*~*~  
  
"Master Splinter!" Leonardo cried out as he entered their lair, dripping rain off his shell and the top of his head, he ran though their living quarters passed the dojo towards the mutated rat's own private compartments, "Master Splinter?"  
  
"Quiet, Young One!" Splinter said, from his position on the floor, legged crossed beneath him, eyes closed, "You are disturbing me."  
  
"Sorry, Sensei," Leonardo stopped, bowing deeply, "I have to speak with you, please."  
  
Splinter opened his eyes and focused his dark brown compassionate gaze onto his eldest student. He motioned for Leonardo to take a seat before him before clearing his throat. "You have questions about Amiko, don't you?"  
  
Leonardo nodded, "More than that, I have questions as to just why we should trust her."  
  
"What does your head tell you, Leonardo-san?" Splinter looked sternly at him, ears perking as the other turtles, Leonardo's brothers in more than just blood, aroused by Leonardo's noisy entrance into their domain, entered the room and took seats around Master Splinter and their older brother.  
  
"My head tells me not to trust her," Leonardo said, seeing Raphael nod out of the corner of his eye. Michaelangelo looked confused and Donatello concerned.  
  
"What does your heart tell you?" Master Splinter asked, not failing to notice the others fidgeting around him.  
  
"I...I'm not sure, Sensei," Leonardo started, "There is something about her that makes me want to trust her, to believe what she told us about her mother and The Shredder..."  
  
"I don't care if she is telling the truth!" Raphael burst out, "That doesn't mean we start tippy-toeing around and not take the fight straight to chrome dome as we've always done, does it?"  
  
"Shh, Raph," Donatello said, "There's more to this now than our simple games of 'touch me, touch you' that have been going on between Shredder and us for some time now."  
  
Master Splinter closed his eyes once more, seeming to gather strength. He opened them once more and faced his students, those he thought of as more than just students, those whom he thought of as family. His mind drifted back into the past as he began his tale.... 


	6. Shadows of the Past

He had first seen her at the market. She'd been dressed in crimson with her hair pulled back into a thin dark braid against her back, peeking out from beneath the hat she wore to shield her eyes from the afternoon sun's glare.  
  
She had been feeling different fruit to see what was ripe and what was not. Under the guise of doing the same, he had watched her as they came closer and closer. Finally, seemingly by chance, his hand brushed against her's as they both reached for the same apple.  
  
"Oh!" She looked up and he was startled by her eyes. Where he'd be prepared to meet brown glittered greenish yellow, "Was that your apple?"  
  
"No," He shook his head, taken by her beauty. Until now he'd thought such beauty only exists within books of mythology, "Excuse, I was just...I've never seen anyone so..."  
  
She waited, seemingly curious at to what he was about to say, one delicate dark brow lifted slightly.  
  
"Beautiful." He breathed, and just then remembered his manners and bowed to her formally, "Please pardon me! My name is Yoshi..."  
  
"Kioko," She smiled, looking away for a moment, then, quite unexpectedly, she reached across the fruit to grasp his hands, "I am so happy to meet you, Yoshi-san, but I cannot linger..."  
  
She indicated the group of young women chatting amiably on the corner, waiting for her. There were three in all. "My sisters are waiting for me," She explained, feeling a strange ache in her breast when the young man had gripped her eyes within his own.  
  
"Wait!" He spoke softly, not allowing her to go just yet, "Have dinner with me. Please."  
  
"I don't..." She shook her head, uncertain as to what was the right thing to do, surely her sisters would disapprove! "I...have to go now..."  
  
"Please?"  
  
She nodded and he let her go, smiling. She fought the urge to giggle like a schoolgirl and ran off to join her waiting siblings. They had pretended not to notice the handsome young man who had approached their little sister but as soon as they'd flanked her once more they began with their questions.  
  
Mina was the first to start, as always, being the eldest and left in charge after their parents' deaths. Even though all her sisters were very nice looking, none were as beautiful as Kioko, and, having had very modern- thinking parents, neither girl had been claimed by a husband yet.  
  
The only one who seemed not to care about this was Kioko, to the others finding a husband was the most wonderful thing that could ever happen to a girl.  
  
"Who is he, Kioko?" Mina asked, slipping her arm about her little sister's waist, "We saw him eyeing you from across the street!"  
  
"Hmph!" Hot-tempered Ami tossed her dark hair over her shoulder, "He probably just wanted the time. Kioko could never catch a man's eye for more than a few moments...once he found out what freak she was he'd run away screaming."  
  
As she laughed cruelly, Kioko narrowed her eyes at her spiteful older sister. It was true that while she was not all human and they were, she did have feelings and Ami, being envious of Kioko's beauty and grace, often sought ways in which to speak barbs that stung. Mina reached over and hit Ami across the shoulder, "Be quiet!"  
  
"He asked me to dinner," Kioko said quietly, "But I can't go!"  
  
"Why not?" Kiku asked, she was the sweet one whom everyone babied, even though she was only a few years older than Kioko, "He was certainly good looking and the way he pretended to touch the apple you held by accident! How romantic!"  
  
"Oh, hush, you!" Ami said, "We all know why she can't go through with it, don't we? Have you forgotten, Kioko, your going to be married in three days!"  
  
Kioko grew silent. She had not forgotten. She'd just shoved the thought to the back of her mind. She did not wish to be married, to be tied down to some man's wants and needs, cooking his meals, baring his brats. No, she longed for freedom to continue her training, to come and go as she willed and not have to answer to anyone, least of all some man!  
  
"You know how I feel about that, Ami," She said coldly, turning on her heel, the dust from the path kicked up, "I am not getting married and I will never get married and that is that!"  
  
Without waiting for any of them to speak, she lifted her feet and ran gracefully swift down the path, leaving them far behind to gape after her.  
  
"Hmph!" She heard Ami with her sensitive ears, "She'll never be able to keep a husband with that attitude!"  
  
~*~*~  
  
Master Splinter drew himself back to the present. He only recalled those scenes in which he, himself had been in, but he remembered Kioko telling him about the walk home with her sisters and what they had spoken of between themselves after he'd asked her out to have dinner with him.  
  
"So, Your telling us that you knew Amiko's mother, when she was younger?" Donatello asked, serving to bring Splinter's thoughts even farther from the past, "Was she...a...friend of yours, Sensei?"  
  
Splinter nodded his ancient head, "Yes, It's been many years since I've thought of the girl she used to be, though..."  
  
~*~*~  
  
"Saki, please!" Kioko screamed, her voice barely reaching past the whispered state as she gripped the bars of her prison weakly, trying to drag herself upright and failing to do so, "If you've ever loved me...let me out!"  
  
She sobbed and her tears mingled with the dried and crackled blood upon her face.  
  
Seated at the control console, trying his best to ignore Krang's constant nasally whine, The Shredder winced at the sound of his prisoner's cries, even so softly he could hear them in the near still-ness of their underground battle station. His head ached and his heart felt little worse, pounding as it was beneath the metal of his armor.  
  
His eyes closed as he thought of the distant past...a past he thought had been forever forgotten...at least so he had tried...  
  
He was walking through the streets that day. Head high and stance aloof as he feared no one or anything in the same village. He was the second best in his class of would-be fighters and succeeded nearly all he'd set out to do. He longed to be the best. In all. His thoughts upon finally besting the one who claimed the title of being better than he, he strolled the streets, paying little attention to the people he scattered before him rather than stopping to allow them passage.  
  
A voice caught his attention and he paused, eyes drawn towards the sound.  
  
"Have dinner with me. Please."  
  
He narrowed his dark eyes, recognizing the voice and fighting off the sudden urge to break into a run towards the other man and pound his face in. Then, just as suddenly, his dark gaze was caught up by the most alluring set of womanly curves he'd ever glimpsed. As if in slow motion, she turned her head and the hat upon her head lifted a bit to reveal her wondrous green eyes and kind soft mouth as she half-smiled away from the man she was speaking with.  
  
"She's so...perfect..." He breathed, and decided that he should be the one to court her, if anyone, and as he watched her leaving with the group of girls, none could match her in looks or grace he noticed, he made up his mind to pay a visit to her family home. "I'll not allow anyone to touch her but me!"  
  
He showed up at her house later that night, but found himself too taken by her to approach her right away. He needed time to think, to plan, to watch her and decide exactly how he should speak to her.  
  
A good warrior takes the time to prepare before battle, he found himself thinking, as he watched from a secluded area between the garden walls and the main house. He often thought of things in terms of war and combat, even things as unwarlike as love.  
  
So, he watched as Yoshi came for her and they left to have dinner together and waited for them to return. He watched as she allowed him to kiss her cheek and blushed slightly as he said his goodnights to her. He felt his blood boil that he should be allowed to mar to perfect face with his mouth and growled low in his throat his rage and hatred towards the other man.  
  
"I see you dead, Yoshi-san!" He growled, a little louder than he had intended, for she turned from her door and looked around, fear in her eyes, dark with the shadows of the night.  
  
"Who's there?" She asked, sniffing the air, she turned until she faced his hiding place, smiling slightly, "I know you're there! Come out now!"  
  
"You think you know much," He spoke, his voice did not shake as he thought it might, his heart still beat loudly beneath his breast, "How can you not know that I am not someone not to be trusted. Perhaps I've come to ravage you and leave you for dead for your sisters to find in the morning. Maybe it wouldn't be so wise to be calling out to shadows in the middle of the night."  
  
For some reason he was enjoying toying with her. She laughed and sat down on the step, saying; "If that were so, than why did you wait until after we got back from our date, why not just spring out and kill my companion and whisk me away to do as you pleased with ease enough to take your time? Why wait all night in the bushes 'til my return?"  
  
She knew I was here?! He asked himself, but to her he replied, "Perhaps I just didn't want to bother with having to deal with...him."  
  
She seemed to think about that for a moment, nodding, "Perhaps."  
  
And so they kept up their conversation, well into the wee hours, only when she began to yawn did he think to even ask her name.  
  
"It's Kioko," She said, smiling, "You would have known that all ready had you been more observant."  
  
"How can I pay attention to words," He said, in mock offense, "When being around someone of such comeliness tends to clog all the senses..."  
  
After a bit, she told him that she had to go inside but begged for him to come out of the shadows so that she could at least see the one with whom she'd been conversing with for the past few hours. But he refused. She pouted prettily, but did not argue. She turned and walked into the house instead. He was left smiling to himself before he decided it was time to leave as well.  
  
Little did he know, she had paused in the hallway towards her room to lean against the wall and smile. She had rarely had a conversation with anyone, male or female, that was so stimulating. Oh, Yoshi-san was nice and they spoke of many interesting things and she really, honestly enjoyed his company....  
  
"Please!"  
  
He was brought of his thoughts by her cries. He shook his head, mentally denying her in his heart and thoughts. There would be no mercy for her, he thought cruelly, a man much changed from the one she had spoken with that night long ago, After how she betrayed me so...No mercy!  
  
He stood up and sweeping his cloak behind him, found his way to his private quarters, away from her desperate wails.  
  
"No mercy!" 


End file.
